Did the first track day in the m3 yesterday. Car was almost flawless but as the day went on I started getting more comfortable and pedalling the car a bit harder. Second to last session ended with me losing power steering mid corner and doing a lap billowing smoke from under the car. When I got back to the pits and saw it was power steering fluid I had just assumed one of the high pressure rack lines had failed since they were already weeping a bit. I went to top up the reservoir and noticed that all the fluid looked like it had come out from under the cap and the overflow hole. It was pretty clear it had boiled over, but it doesn't stop there. I went to remove the cap and see what the level was at and the dipstick on the cap had completed melted off...
I have never heard of this happening, I have seen some people say they have had this happen when using a normal PS fluid, but I was using castrol ATF. The fluid smelt burnt and you could smell the plastic. It was pretty clear on the drive home the pump was shot since it was whining under any kind of load although the power steering did come back once the fluid cooled off. Not sure whether the pump failed and overheated the bearing causing the fluid to boil, or whether the fluid boiled and caused the pump to fail. The molten plastic wouldn't have helped either.
I have never heard of this happening, I have seen some people say they have had this happen when using a normal PS fluid, but I was using castrol ATF. The fluid smelt burnt and you could smell the plastic. It was pretty clear on the drive home the pump was shot since it was whining under any kind of load although the power steering did come back once the fluid cooled off. Not sure whether the pump failed and overheated the bearing causing the fluid to boil, or whether the fluid boiled and caused the pump to fail. The molten plastic wouldn't have helped either.
Comment